Nakaya Kugihiki 180mm Flush-Cutting Saw

The Nakaya Kugihiki is a Japanese flush-cutting pull saw made for trimming wooden dowels, plugs and pegs level with the surrounding surface. Its 180mm blade is only 0.2mm thick, so it flexes to lie flat against the workpiece and can even follow gentle contours, while the fine teeth (36 per 30mm) have no set. With no teeth projecting beyond the blade, either face of the saw can rest on the finished surface without scratching it, and the kerf is as narrow as the blade itself. Because the teeth have no set, the Kugihiki is a trimming saw rather than a general-purpose saw, and it is not intended for long rip cuts through boards. Nakaya, based in Sanjo, Niigata, has more than a century of saw-making history and specializes in replaceable-blade designs. The Kugihiki (Nakaya model FC-180) has a traditional straight wooden handle wrapped in rattan, and the blade is secured in the ferrule with a screw, so a dulled blade can be swapped for a genuine Nakaya replacement blade (sold separately) instead of being resharpened.